Great Info but...

I found the information provided in the audio book to be important and helpful but a lot of the content lends itself better in print form. It was difficult to follow the science portions and test cases provided in the audio book format. Just something to keep it mind when trying to decide between the audio or print version.

20 people found this helpful

Underwhelming for the initiated

There are a handful of earnest attempts to share entheogenic experiences in the last 3 hours very moving stuff that I think many walkers can relate to. A “darkness retreat” also sounded worthwhile; but overall, just for me, I guess I wanted more. More stories to see if we are all experiencing a similar connection. I don’t know what I expected to be honest, and there are great safety tips for those putting toes in the pool; but I guess if I’m honest I wanted an Alan Watts figure to walk me through his ideas and take aways from several decades of researching psychedelics and the human experience. A high bar I know. Haha, I just wish an 80 year old shaman would write a book of their experiences with people, gods and the plans that bind us.

I suppose I should be the change I want to see, right?

37 people found this helpful

unlistenable

Terrible narration and a book structure/format that doesn’t lend itself well to an audiobook (too many headings and subheadings in the text). Gave up early on which is unfortunate given my interest in the subject matter.

5 people found this helpful

Hard to listen to

Everything that normally is put in the foot notes and list of reading on the topic here is read painfully slow out loud. Hence performance is almost unbearable.
The story adds nothing to other much better books like Michael Pollan's volume on the same subject.
A bunch of links to various web pages that were read out loud in this book might be valuable, I wrote down a few but have not seen them yet.
If I knew what this book is I would have not bought it.

3 people found this helpful

Lots of information

As an eminent researcher and shepherd to future guides and researched this is a comprehensive point in time look at psychedelic experience and exposure in our country. It is sometimes tedious to follow. Lack of high quality current research (because of government bans) means there is quite a bit of annecdotal evidence and story reports. Hopefully this book continues the tradition of psychedelics for personal growth and healing.

1 person found this helpful

Listen at 1.25 speed

I found that speeding up the slow-ish narration made the book much more conversational and easier to consume.

2 people found this helpful

Not what I expected

Cool book. But, it seems to go over the same material in different chapters and repeats some information more than needed. I lost interest during a long segment of LSD trip reports, but still finished.

2 people found this helpful

New favorite

The book was excellent, informative, and enjoyable from start to finish. I highly recommend it to anyone curious of phycadellics.

Great research material

PSA: Dr Fadiman is presenting research material from years and years of research. This is not going to be an entertaining story. Narrator is also quite dry. But the fact that psychedelics have continued to be around with new used being found daily fascinated me. I grew up with “DARE”, “this is your brain on drugs”, “LSD will cause severe birth defects”, “you will go crazy from flashbacks” etc. To now hear that was all bullshit and that psychedelics have been used in incredible ways and we are now finding even more wonderful uses for them just blows my mind! This is a very insightful book if you can get past the research data part of it.

Grab Bag of Fascinating Insights

It contains lots of standalone chapters detailing the protocols and results of scientific experiments, detailed trip reports, historical memoirs of prominent psychedelic figures, checklists, etc. arranged seemingly almost at random. But the cumulative effect is a multifaceted view of psychedelic substances and their place in American society. And a never ending stream of gems keeps the book from bogging down into formlessness. A definite keeper for anyone interested in psychedelics.